Poorly

How to spell poorly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce poorly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does poorly mean?

1. adverbIn a bad, inadequate, or unsatisfactory way.
2. adjectiveUnwell or in poor health.

Poorly in a sentence

• adverb

  The new software performed poorly under heavy load.

• adjective

  She has been poorly all week and stayed home from work.

• adverb

  The report was poorly written and had to be rewritten.

• adjective

  The child looked poorly and was sent to the school nurse.

Where does poorly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the adjective 'poor' plus the native English suffix '-ly', which turns a word into an adverb or, in some dialects, an adjective. 'Poor' itself reached English in the 1200s through Old French 'povre' or 'poure', which descended from the Latin 'pauper', meaning a person of small means or lacking wealth. The literal idea behind 'pauper' was producing little, and you can still feel that root in relatives such as 'poverty' and 'pauper'. By Shakespeare's day the adverb 'poorly' meant 'inadequately' or 'badly', and a distinctly British use grew up alongside it meaning 'in poor health', so that someone unwell was simply said to be 'poorly'. The spelling holds onto the double 'o' of 'poor' all the way through, which is the small thing that trips writers expecting a single vowel.

How the word is built

• poor (from Latin pauper: not wealthy, lacking means)
• -ly (adverb/adjective suffix)